Greene Central grabs 8-2 win over Ayden-Grifton

Wednesday

AYDEN - A big performance from Dylan Benton on the mound and at the plate led Greene Central to a much-needed 8-2 Eastern Carolina Conference baseball win over Ayden-Grifton on Tuesday night.

The Rams (8-5, 4-2) entered the game tied with three other teams for third in the ECC. With the win over the Chargers (9-7, 1-5), the Rams are now in a three-way tie with North Lenoir (10-3, 4-2) and South Lenoir (7-5,4-2) for second, one game behind Washington (10-2, 4-1).

“When we went into this conference, we had an idea of how good it was going to be, then when you start doing it every night, it's more than you thought,” Ayden-Grifton head coach Corey Skimmer. “The teams in this conference are just really good.”

For Greene Central, the win broke a two-game losing streak. As usual, when the Rams get good pitching, they usually win. The Rams are 5-0 when they allow 5 runs or less, but are 3-5 when they allow more than 5 runs.

Benton gave the Rams a good outing on the mound with 6 innings pitched, 2 strikeouts, and only allowed 6 hits for 2 runs, 1 earned.

Benton usually is behind the plate. Even though he was on the mound, he still brought his bat with the first run of the game, coming courtesy of his home run to lead off the second inning. He also picked up a sacrifice fly.

“It felt great to hit in the second inning, it's the first one I had all season,” Benton said. “It felt great just to barrel one up and make it go somewhere.”

AJ Dupree went 1-1 at the plate, including a walk, 2 stolen bases and 2 runs. Jackson Batchelor finished with 2 hits and 2 RBIs. Jalen Cooper had 2 hits, 2 steals and a run.

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